The Wounded Amaryllis

Yesterday I took the afternoon off of work so Travalon and I could do some last-minute cleaning at my old condo. Unfortunately, one of the closet doors had fallen against a door between rooms and left a dent in it, so Travalon ran to the hardware store to get wood putty. Rich and I had managed to break a light cover while putting closet doors back on, so we still have to replace that, and we still haven’t found a bathroom exhaust fan that fits. The balcony needs to be repainted, but that is a common element and the management company says they are working on getting bids for that. Otherwise, the place not only looks nicer than when I moved out, it looks nicer than when I moved in. The carpeting is new, and the walls are now a lovely pale almond. It’s so inviting that a small part of me wants to move back in, but it will be wonderful to be rid of it completely. The realtor said I should be able to get more than I was hoping for, so that is some really good news. She did say we should install a washer and dryer, so we had to go to Home Depot and drop some serious money on that. My unit is slightly bigger than the other ones on the market there, plus it’s upstairs, plus – and this is the real selling point – it has underground parking. (I did miss that this past winter!) We are going to have the washer and dryer installed this coming Saturday, and then it will be listed. Here’s hoping it sells quickly and for a good price!

Travalon said I could blog about this, as long as I emphasized it was an accident. A couple of weeks ago he accidentally knocked over my amaryllis plant, which had a bud, and the stem got bent. I was not feeling well, so I burst into tears, and he felt really bad. We thought about trying duct tape to patch up the stem, but we took it to a nearby flower shop, and they splinted the stem. They said it probably wouldn’t work, but the bud continued to get bigger, and split to show four buds, and now the biggest one is opening. Not only is this a happy story in its own right, it seems like a beautiful metaphor for so many things in life: when hope seems lost, it is still worth the effort to patch things up and see if they heal.

Famous Hat